Experiments with electric propulsion have been around nearly as long as the dawn of the car industry in the early 1900s, a Progress Energy expert Mike Waters told Pasco county commissioners at a Tuesday workshop. It wasn't until the 1920s when cheap gasoline led to total dominance of the market by the internal combustion engine. ...more

November 14, 2009

Art Hernden was 15 and conspicuously open to suggestion. Oh, sure, like most of his peers growing up within the penumbra of Detroit astride the World War II globe, his imagination was powered by the internal combustion engine and all that could be linked to it. ...more

March 15, 2009

As Toyota, General Motors and other automakers race to bring rechargeable electric vehicles to showrooms, the man running much of Toyota's research says its approach is the least costly way to get great mileage and performance in the near term. ...more

August 15, 2008

Government-sanctioned fireworks shows are a staple of Fourth of July celebrations. This year, however, various factors, both local and on the other side of the globe, are prompting many local government, here in Pinellas and elsewhere, to scrap their traditional Independence Day fireworks displays. ...more

May 31, 2008

Millions of inventions pass quietly through the U.S. patent office each year. Patent No. 7,033,406 did, too, until energy insiders spotted six words in the filing that sounded like a death knell for the internal combustion engine. ...more

September 17, 2007